Where did Excellent Art have a tougher trip? He tucked in early, stayed covered up and made a late run while lugging in on his own accord. He finished one length ahead of NoBiz. I mean your standards are seemingly so high that only on or two horses are any good in a given year? I dont know anyone who was calling this horse a hall of fame horse or superstar. But he is a really nice horse who if he had an inside trip may very well be the BC mile winner.

Pletcher winning one race is not a good day as per the standards that he set, especially when he had 2 possibiles for horse of the year run way off the board. Sure it might be a great day for a smaller trainer but I'm sure he is not really that thrilled over it.

He is an Albert the Great that can run...kind of a freak of nature really

Well the Albert the Great connection and the purchasing of a certain amount of ad space in the bloodhorse probably had a little to do with the fact that the bloodhorse was in love with Nobiz for some reason. Haskin commenting that we haven't seen an american turf horse in years with the turn of foot of Nobiz was either the result of too much drinking or a wad of 100's stuffed in his pocket by three chimneys. LOL

As for Nobiz vs Excellent Art, the Louisville Courier comments were

"He's a good or fast ground horse," said Aidan O'Brien, who trains Excellent Art. "He was drawn outside (post 13), so he had to let the race unfold, but he was closing, closing, closing at the end."

Nobiz Like Shobiz made a strong bid at the top of the stretch but flattened out to finish fourth.

Excellent Art's trip cost him the win. The trip Nobiz had was better than the trip the 5th and 6th place finishers had and they nearly caught him


The fact is Nobiz might not have liked an off track and ran a decent race but the betting public making him 2nd choice and the amount of hype around the horse is insanity.

No Biz is a still a good horse. The horse finished 4th in the BC Mile. I would take that anyday of the week.

The Bloodhorse takes adds from all the major farms so I'm sure they aren't biased towards Three Chimney farm especially for that stallion. Saying that Steve Haskin would take money to write nice about a horse is just plain stupid. Haskin is not only a great writer especially as compared to most of what we get for writers in this sport but his reputation and integrity is impeccable.

NoBiz @ 4-1 second choice was the underlay of the day.

Nobiz didn't embarass himself. For a 9 or 10 furlong horse who is more of a great animal with versatility than a true top class turf animal, he really did well against some top class turf older horse milers.

Pletcher had at least English Channel and Honey Rider run big races (without looking over the charts). Lawyer Ron was a Grade 2 horse that couldn't finish a race before Pletcher pumped him up. Lawyer Ron had some of the best 4yo races this summer. It would have been a little funky to see Lawyer Ron win the classic but Pletcher actually made that horse into something you would have to consider as one of the five win contenders.
Any Given Saturday was naturally a 8.5 furlong horse. He happened to peak around the same time as Lawyer Ron this year and won an 8.5 and 9 furlong race in some of the best performances of the year for a 3yo horse. Again it would have been funky if this guy won the classic off a trainer move up , but he was one of the 5 contenders. They actually parlayed his Distorte Humor x AP Indy pedigree combined with the trainer/vet move-up for a hugely inflated sale! It was a Super year from Pletcher in that regard.

true.


and this was even with the linesmaker stubbornly setting opening him @ 8-1 !
If he went by the public and started him at 3-1 in the program , he may have gone off at 3-1.


edit - most distinguished was pretty bad as well - i forget where he went off. Nashobas key had her work cut out with the soft.. who else? discreet cat(friday), Helsinki! (no way in the slop) ... come to think of it, should have made a lot more money than we did.

i must have been on the evil twin board all this time, as i don't remember any cheerleading for pletcher posts.
as for posts about nobiz, the horse didn't win, or win anyone a bet unless they included him in a winning super. i could be wrong, but i don't often see a lot of praise for a horse who doesn't win, or show much in a narrow defeat. nobiz apparently ran his usual race, which against top competition isn't quite enough.

Is it safe to attack JV then??? He isn't that good on the turf, he has bucked shins.:)

It's funny how publicity or public expectations of a horse can skew your own opinion.. Personally, I didn't care for the dirt incantation of Nobiz Like Shobiz at all during the Derby Trail, but have come to really like him now. I thought he ran very credibly Saturday and as mentioned elsewhere, talked with Tagg waiting for Velazquez to come back with the colt. He wasn't happy with the wide run and swing out on the turn by JV, but seemed please with the horse's effort and progress overall. He also speculated that Nobiz is going to continue to improve saying, "He's got a lot more to do yet."

if your whole point is that he was an underlay, ok, we get it. you could be right. there is no arguing that he ran a nice race finishing only 2 lengths back.
to imply that he is slow though is hard to understand. if NoBiz-like speed is the threshold below which all horses are slow, then 99.9% of all horses are slow.

somehow i am missing all the hype on this horse that you keep referring to.
to me an article or statement in bloodhorse does not constitute excessive hype.

It's also funny (maybe lamentable) that so much emphasis is put on one race but that's what the BC has done to the sport, for better or otherwise. If you ran the Mile, Turf, FM Turf and Distaff 10 times each, you'd probably see 3-5 different winners of those races.

I don't think Tagg's horse embarrased himself at all. All things considered, I thought he raced good. Tired, flattened out, etc. -- yeah, sure, all a byproduct of the trip, track, pace, and so on. If you didn't like the horse, you have one slant. If you did, you have another. OK.

I thought the horse had potential earlier in the year, Derby trail. However, after he didn't progress, move forward, etc. I figured he was what he was. I do think they reinvented the horse to an extent in heading to the weeds with him, and there I think he moved forward significantly. I was never a big fan, but I am glad he's coming back next year.

Eric

Nobiz Like Shobiz $1,544,730
Albertus Maximus $193,370
Royal Right $174,329
Dr. Einstein $135,538
My Great Love $116,270
Motion $114,355
Always Albert $96,060
Topside Trader $88,445
Great Bridge $76,975
Almagnus $76,930

Year Wins Earned
2005 16 $271,123
2006 75 $1,659,474
*Totals 91 $1,930,597
add for 2007 so far 35 winners from 59 starters, earnings of $2,334,223

His oldest foals are 4, far too early to dismiss a sire as useless. They don't sell particularly well for some reason, but it isn't because they can't run. He hasn't had super-sized crops - 67 in '03, 51 in '04, 61 in '05 (current 2yos) - and in general they aren't ready at 2, Nobiz being the exception. If I were a breed-to-race breeder, I'd consider him a bargain at $7,500.

Yes it is